The Enigma of Rimbaud and the Poet as an Absent Image in Two Stories from Roberto Bolaño's Putas Asesinas

Abstract

This article addresses a relevant theme in the work of the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño: the presence of the poet Arthur Rimbaud as a main subject of his fiction. The starting point is one of the most studied themes in the work of the poet from Charleville, the "silence of Rimbaud", that is, the moment when the poet "s'en va", abandons poetry and activates the mystery that will surround his figure for posterity. Our purpose is to look at the functioning of this theme in two of Bolaño's short stories, "Últimos atardeceres en la Tierra!" and "Fotos," from the book Putas asesinas, with the aim of thinking about Bolaño's own auctorial conception and the link between author and image in these texts.